Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaking recently in a Buffalo suburb, said that “there has to be a death penalty for failing schools, so to speak,” according to an article in the Buffalo News. He was referring to closing low performing schools.

The comment, which echoes what State Education Commissioner John King said earlier this month, triggered a heated response from Samuel Radford, president of the city’s parent council, and Philip Runmore, head of Buffalo’s teachers union.

I’m betting you can easily guess who said what based on similar exchanges made by school and labor officials here in Rochester. Radford praised the governor and said that parents support him, and of course, rhetorically speaking they probably do. But wait until the schools start closing.

And Runmore criticized the governor, saying that Buffalo’s deeply entrenched poverty was to blame. 

Cuomo’s list of options is also interesting. Schools should be given a short time to improve, he says, and then something dramatic has to occur: state takeover of the schools, mayoral control, or a charter takeover. He said that Albany can’t continue to allow as many as three-quarters of Buffalo’s schools to continue failing.

The governor lumped the Rochester school district in with failing school districts around the state that need immediate improvement.  

This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.

I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education,...

2 replies on “Cuomo says failing schools need to be closed”

  1. Perhaps Cuomo should simply close down the entire Rochester City School District and ship all the students to the ‘burbs. Then we’d see how well those critics deal with the city’s problems.

  2. Perhaps Cuomo can point to a strategy based on something other than threats and fear that results in ACTUAL positive results (and not the ephemeral faked results of DC and Atlanta).

    Too much more talk like this and we will see more and more schools adopt strategies that result in better numbers but unchanged education levels. When the test is the measure, the test will be the target, not better education.

    I like MJN’s idea as well (at least conceptually. I would love to see how suburban-based “reformers” would act when they are responsible for the results.)

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